Must Use Tactics to Differentiate Your Company From the Competition

ByTeam Mosspaper

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06 Jun, 2016

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As a business owner, you can never take it for granted that the saying “if you build it, they will come” will hold true. You aren't the only person to have followed that advice, and if your business offers a product or service that is similar to yours, why will customers chose you? What do you offer them that the competition doesn't? Not all business owners adopt this mindset, which often times explains why they struggle to ever get off the ground.

You are never entitled to a customer's business – you have to earn it. Following these three tips will go a long ways towards guiding your marketing and sales approach towards the customers you want to attract and retain.

In a perfect world, the product that would dominate the market would always be the very best one. While many times this is true, the way you present your product or service has at least as much to do with your success as the product or service itself. This is especially true if what you and your competitors are offering isn't easily differentiated by the average customer.

Advertising is typically thought of as a means and method of getting customers to buy your product after they have been made aware of it. Much less often to they present themselves as the ideal solution to your specific needs. Pay close attention to what a product is advertising – does it sell a product based on the fact that it's inexpensive, or does it market itself as the proper solution to your own problem? And furthermore, what are the shopping habits of your target customers? Are they impulsive or thoughtful? Lower or upper income? Indecisive or committed? Knowing these traits will prove invaluable in guiding how you differentiate your product to these people. The use of analytics is fast becoming a popular means of doing this (#3 below).

2. Use Customer-centric marketing

This refers to adjusting your brand and advertising to specifically target the demographic you wish to target without excluding any one demographic. Luxury brands do this all time – everything about their design and image is calculated to exude an aura of sophistication and wealth. These marketing techniques work for specific people who see the value in the lifestyle or brand.

Businesses who use customer-centric marketing find a single segment of the population they wish to appeal to and make every effort they can to attract and retain them. If you are actively seeking young middle-income adults, then your advertising and marketing strategy should be specifically designed to appeal to that group. Pay close attention to what customers are saying via your various social media feeds, and adjust your approach as needed.

And lastly, this alone is worth mentioning in its own paragraph: a rewards program. What better way to show your customers you care than setting up a system that not only rewards their continued patronage but offers perks specifically relevant to what they came in to shop for in the first place? A great example of this is Starbucks – their rewards program gives you free drinks and discounted products in return for spending a certain amount of money there. I've seen multiple customers try a new drink or food item with these rewards, and many times they come to like it and begin buying it regularly. Not only has this built up loyalty with that customer, but it has helped generate additional sales for Starbucks in the long run!

3. Leverage analytics

Analytics is defined as the logical analysis and sequencing of data. Put another way, analytics relies on the rigorous collection and interpretation of data to guide the direction a business needs to take when deciding how best to find, attract and retain their customers. Analytics can be used to pick apart even the smallest bits of information – for example, how long do customers spend on certain pages on your website? What advertisements are they responding to the most? How have their behaviors changed over time?

The type of data used can include some higher-level mathematical concepts, like derivatives (measuring the sensitivity of change in a function). Many businesses only have a rudimentary understanding of their customer's behaviors and buying patterns. They often keep track of traditional metrics like revenue, labor and fixed costs and expenses, but they often fail to look deeper into the patterns and trends of their customer's buying habits, depriving them of a valuable opportunity to adjust their approach to their needs and wants.

There are plenty of software tools you can use that will do the heavy lifting for you – many businesses have yet to utilize these tools, so adopting them now will give you an edge over them. Play your cards right, and you could turn that edge into an advantage that will propel your business ahead of the competition.

A client contract is the best way to avoid disputes with customers and ensure you and your clients are on the same page. Make sure you foot your best foot forward with simple and clear language. As a small business owner or freelancer, it’s important to protect yourself and have a solid foundation for your business.

With so many online resources, yоur customers has a lot of information about your business before they decide to become your customer. It can be a lengthy process and a bit more complex than ѕіmрlу saying; "I need tо purchase something and I know precisely from who".

The customer buying cycle is defined in 3 steps. First, you have awareness which can be described as the moment the customer sees your product while there is a need for it. Second, there is moment of consideration where they are evaluating your product or services for a possible purchase. Lastly, the final step is purchase, where the buyer makes a purchase.

Here are some ways to market to these buyers:

1) Awareness

Having an online presence such as a website that describes your product and services will help your buyer find you. It’s always good to have testimonials to provide credibility as well as recommendations through sites such as yelp or google business.

2) Consideration

When your customer has found you, it’s best to introduce your product as a solution to a problem the buyer may be having. The buyer is trying to see if your offering can meet their challenges and how you will be doing it.

Having a quote or contract that describes your methodology with a breakdown of costs associated with how you will be address their needs will be beneficial at this stage. describe the value the buyer will be receiving if they choose you as a vendor and include reviews or customer references.

3) Purchase

The buyer is ready to be your customer. If the customer requires more time, you should consider giving them a discount or coupons. Having a simply way for them to agree to your terms through electronic signature and payments will be helpful to ensure you close the deal quickly.

Successful businesses maintain good habits and it is one of the reasons why they managed to be where they are now. Habits they have picked along the way, such as good contract management
, has helped them get to where they are at the moment and take their business to the next level. The bad news is that there are small businesses that don’t have any good habits at all. The good news is that they can start changing their attitude and practices in order to develop good habits.

In a highly competitive landscape, it’s important and vital to make sure you ensure good habits are enforced so your business continues to thrive. Here are some good habits that can help small businesses include:

1) Focusing Your energy

To ensure you utilize every minute and hour of each day, it’s important to learn how to focus on the most rewarding tasks. Take care of the low hanging fruits first. Review your list of things to do and evaluate which task you can do now that will bring forth the most value to your customers and team. Give each task a percentage of impact and ask yourself what are the top 3 things I can do that will benefit my business the most.

2) Prioritize

Ask yourself what is the most important thing you need to do today in order to set a foundation for your business. It’s always important to think about how something can help you to increase revenue or reduce your operating cost. The vital part of any business to knowing when you should create a strategy for long term goals while balancing short term objectives. Most businesses have 3-5 simple objectives they want to accomplish each quarter. Everything else you do should coincide with those objectives. Never lose sight of the goals you have set out for yourself. Once you have a goal in place, work each day to get closer to those goals.

Having ways to measure performance or data analytics in your business helps you prioritize your business. Based on that data, you can start to formulate patterns and understand what works and what doesn’t. Focus on what works and continue to improve business workflow to ensure your success.

3) Create Task and Execute

With each of your goals or objectives, it’s essential to follow through to ensure long-term success. Most of the time a goal has a few steps in between until it’s completed. Write it all down. Sometimes, it helps to work backwards if there are dates involved. Write down and revise as needed. With each task, you get closer and closer to where you want to be.

The use of software to streamline task and follow up is very useful in situations where there are a lot of repetitive, mundane work. Try to look for solutions like Mosspaper, a quote and contract management platform, to help you execute your business goals in a more orderly fashion. Mosspaper focuses on different aspects of your business such as operations, finance, and sales. With built-in workflows, it helps you consolidate the management of your team’s workload all in one platform.

4) Positive Mindset

Being happy and having a positive mental outlook can help with any situation. It is always said that you don’t have control with external factors, but you do have control over how you handle situations. With positive thinking regardless of what you are going through, you will continue to work through situations and reach your goals. A great attitude for success and having gratitude can go a long way. If you understand what you’re trying to achieve and have patience with the process, you will be ahead of the rest.

It’s important to have good habits to succeed as an entrepreneur or small business owner. There are many different ways to get to where you want to be. Having disciplined habits can make or break your company as you face the challenges limited time and resources on a daily basis. Working smarter is always better.

For any interior designer, being able to provide accurate and effective sales quotes to your clients can be one of the best ways to drum up recurring business. When you are able to give your clients something that they can actually understand and feel comfortable with paying, you give off a far more professional approach and style. However, being able to give quotation services that are accurate and detailed can be quite tricky, and for many interior designers it can be easier to just stick to the basics. Here are some of the best ways that you can start changing your mindset and increasing the quality of work that you provide by using a value-based quotation system.

Here are some of the best ways that you can start changing your mindset and increasing the quality of work that you provide by using a value-based quotation system.

1) Provide a Work Summary

It’s always important to make sure that your clients are able to get a summary of the upcoming job so they can always refer to what is going to be taking place. This will be a list of goals that are to be achieved throughout the process; include key benefits within the work summary and an overall price of the job as a well. Dealing with part of any quote management system can be tough for an interior designer, but looking for software packages that help you manage this – for example, we recommend checking out Mosspaper – can be a massively beneficial way to keep things flowing.

2) Include Suggestions

One thing that always helps your clients out is to give them easy feedback and suggestions as to what they could improve moving forward; by having this within the quotation you are providing a bit more authority and helping them see things they maybe would have missed themselves. This helps to build extra trust between you both and makes your sales quotes a bit different to the rest.

3) Itemize Your Pricing

You need to make sure that your clients are able to see why the price is the way it is. If you can give them a fully itemized list to help them see what their money is paying for, the quote will feel far more authentic. Some designers aren’t comfortable doing this, but it’s an absolute must. Again, Mosspaper can help you do this. The administrative side of the software is excellent and will make creating references to items being used on the job so much easier.

4) Include Terms & Conditions

You always need to have the right legal information included with a quotation – especially in something as expensive and serious as interior design. Please make sure that your quote includes the terms and conditions section so the clients really understands what is required of them. Mosspaper can help you audit track all documents like this so you can be sure that the client reads and agrees to everything that is mention on the sales quote.

5) Provide References

Lastly, make sure that you provide some kind of reference to your potential client with a quote. This adds such an extra layer of value to proceedings and will really go a long way to help you become a favored option for the job. If you want to benefit from getting more work and the best kind of jobs, then working towards a value-based quotation system can be the best way to go.

As an small business, it's important to make sure you provide customers with the right information in an organized matter. It makes it 10 times easier on you in the end. Thus, it's imperative to provide your customer with a value-based quote when you start working with them. Professionalism, attention to detail, and thoroughness goes a long way.